› added 5 years ago

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TIL in 2001, a South African company named Naspers decided to purchase a 46.5% stake into an up-and-coming Chinese tech company. This initial investment of $32 million into what would become Tencent has now ballooned to over $175 billion, making it one of the most successful investments in history.

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6Ee98 TIL More than 10,000 shipping containers are lost at sea every year.
dMa8 TIL Irish airline tycoon Michael O'Leary acquired a taxi license for his luxury Mercedes S500L so he could use Dublin’s bus lanes for his daily commute.
wLE78 TIL that in 1970, the state commission in Mississippi voted to not air Sesame Street because of its “highly [racially] integrated cast of children” which “the commission members felt ... Mississippi was not yet ready for”.
WG5A TIL that during WWII, Norwegian resistance members would put itching powder inside condoms and deliver them to German soldiers. Many of them went to the hospital, thinking they had contracted an STD.
xVxL1 TIL about Triboulet, a notorious jester who was allowed to choose his own death after having insulted the Queen of France. He chose to die of old age, which make the King laughing so much, he banished him of the realm instead.